Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Wood-burning Stoves: Ecolabelling

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Answers of 17 January 2022 to Questions 102528 on Wood-burning Stoves: Regulation and 102529 on Wood-burning Stoves: Ecolabelling, what steps his Department has taken to ensure high standards in (a) approval processes and (b) testing for individual wood burning appliances or ranges of appliances before they are certified as complying with the requirements of the Ecodesign Regulations.

Robbie Moore: Defra does not own Ecolabelling or Ecodesign but does have an interest. Since January 2022 emissions to air have become part of the testing regime. Prior to placing a product on the market, manufacturers must demonstrate conformity with the implementing measures as set out in the product specific regulations. This includes a declaration of conformity and technical documentation and can include relevant standards used to demonstrate compliance. This technical documentation must be kept by the manufacturer for a period of 10 years after production and made available to the market surveillance authority, who can conduct independent testing after the product has launched on the market.

Flood Control: Finance

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many flood risk schemes have been allocated funding via the Flood Defence Grant in Aid; and in which locations funded schemes have been.

Robbie Moore: This Government is acting to drive down flood risk from every angle. The Government announced in March 2020 a record £5.2 billion investment over six years in flood and coastal erosion schemes to better protect communities across England. Since 2021, £1.5 billion has so far been invested in flood defence projects across the country. The Investment Plan for the six-year floods programme, published in 2021, provided indicative information about regional allocation of investment. The range of projects in the programme is refreshed annually to take account of changes in local projects, and now also the impacts of inflation and COVID-19 on the programme. Our previous floods investment programme ran from 2015 to 2021. The number of projects and homes better protected by region is provided in the table below. Office of National Statistics RegionApril 2015 to March 2021 number of projects that were invested in and delivered homes better protectedApril 2015 to March 2021 homes better protectedEast Midlands7038,200East of England7811,500London3020,100North East846,500North West11637,600South East12980,600South West13328,500West Midlands997,500Yorkshire11583,800Total854314,300

Agriculture: Flood Control

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much funding his Department has provided to farmers for the implementation of flood prevention solutions on their farms in each of the last five years.

Robbie Moore: The six-year £5.2 billion floods investment programme is provided to Risk Management Authorities (RMAs) rather than providing funding directly to farmers. Although many RMAs work with farmers to reduce flood risk, we do not hold a central record for this information. Current offers to support farmers include the Countryside Stewardship (Cs) scheme, which supports farmers to improve water quality and manage flood risk through a range of grants and advice from Catchment Sensitive Farming. Support from the CS scheme to manage flood risk includes grants to reward farmers to control runoff and make space for water. The yearly breakdown for the costs is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.

Agriculture: Flood Control

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department has taken to reduce the proportion of Grade 1 agricultural land at high risk of flooding.

Robbie Moore: As well as protecting more than 300,000 homes, the 2015-21 £2.6 billion flood investment programme worked with farmers to reduce the risk of flooding to nearly 600,000 acres of agricultural land. The 2021-27 capital programme will also offer increased protection to agricultural land. The Environment Agency does not break down the figure by land classification grade. Current offers to support farmers include the Countryside Stewardship (CS) scheme, which supports farmers to improve water quality and manage flood risk through a range of grants and advice from Catchment Sensitive Farming. Support from the CS scheme to manage flood risk includes grants to reward farmers to control runoff and make space for water. The yearly breakdown of these costs is not centrally held. We are also introducing our new environmental land management schemes, which reward environmental benefits, including protection from environmental hazards such as flooding.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Israel: Arms Trade

Zarah Sultana: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the eligibility of arms export licenses to Israel since the start of the conflict in Gaza.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: Every export licence application is assessed on a case by case basis against the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria. As part of these assessments we take into account the nature of the equipment to be exported, the end user/s, and how the equipment is likely to be used. We also take into account our international commitments and obligations, which include the International Arms Trade Treaty. All licences are kept under careful and continual review as standard. We are able to suspend, refuse or revoke licences as circumstances require.

Members: Correspondence

Dan Carden: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, if he will respond to the letter from the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians of 8 December 2023.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: We will be responding shortly to the correspondence in question, regarding the provision of military goods to Israel. The Government takes its defence export responsibilities extremely seriously and operates some of the most robust export controls in the world. All applications for export licences are assessed on a case-by-case basis against the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria and taking into account our international commitments and obligations, including the International Arms Trade Treaty. All licences are kept under careful and continual review and we can suspend, refuse or revoke licences as circumstances require. As the Foreign Secretary has said, we are gravely concerned about the desperate humanitarian situation in Gaza. We are focused on significantly increasing the amount of aid into Gaza and the Foreign Secretary has appointed a UK humanitarian coordinator to drive this work.